


At First Crash

by Of Elves and Wolves (Only2morrow)



Series: In Too Deep [1]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age - Various Authors, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, First Meetings, car crash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-10
Updated: 2017-02-10
Packaged: 2018-09-23 08:48:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9648632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Only2morrow/pseuds/Of%20Elves%20and%20Wolves
Summary: When Rendon Howe arranges for the murder of Arianna Cousland's family, her entire world is shattered. But through the smoke and ash, a man appears who will one day put those pieces back together.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The first meeting of one of my all time favorite ships, the poised Arianna Cousland and the rough Virassan Alasan. 
> 
> Vir was created by the lovely and talented @geeky-jez, who continues to create some of the best OC's ever.

Smoke. Leaking gas. Burnt Rubber. 

Coughing. Blood trickling down her arm. 

Shattered glass around her. 

Her mother’s voice. 

Fading. 

The evening started out as any other. The Cousland family together for one last time before her father and brother left on an extended business trip. Oren sitting upon Oriana’s lap. Bryce and Eleanor always remaining hand in hand. Joy in the air. Fergus complaining at having to see yet another opera. Gilmore, the driver, chuckling at the happy family. Asking if they would like to put in an order for dinner. 

And Arianna sitting in the middle. 

She laughed delightfully, ticking Oren upon his mother’s lap, the short crimson pigtails upon her shoulders swaying a little as she moved... The boy squirmed laughing at his Aunt Ari and her antics. Vowing to repay her for this treachery with tickles of his own. Oriana turned to Fergus, kissing her husband on the cheek. Eleanor scolding her kids gently. 

They were a happy family.

A whole family. 

Bryce answered his phone. His voice turning, twisting as he spoke. Eleanor tried to calm him down, but the man would have none of her soothing efforts. 

“Howe!” He yelled, “Howe you can’t do this!” 

Arianna turned, the curve of her cheeks falling with the smile upon her lipstick covered lips. She opened her mouth to ask what was happening. To question her father, who rarely angered, what his yelling was about. But before her voice could leave her throat her ears filled with only the sickening sounds of the crash. 

Smoke. Leaking gas. Burnt Rubber. 

Coughing. Blood trickling down her arm. 

Shattered glass around her. 

Her mother’s voice. 

Fading. 

She tried to move, pressing her hands to the leather below trying to inch herself out of the vehicle. Smoke clouded her sight bringing a well of tears to her emerald colored eyes, the sound of her father groaning in agony seared into her mind. 

Her body finally dislodged itself from its sickening position, her form falling to the ground in a heap of blood and ivory. She looked to her side, calling for Oriana, for Oren… but hearing nothing. 

Gone. 

They were gone. 

She coughed again crawling to her mother and pulling at the woman. She yelled, she pleaded with her as the smoke began to rise.

Is that what she said or was this merely a hallucination? Her mind dealing with the sights and sounds of the crash. She screamed again, yelling at her father to stay awake, but the smoke was rising. 

And Fergus was nowhere to be found. 

She crawled from the smashed window of the car, her lungs gasping at the air around her. She pulled at her mother now with the same strength she pulled at her as a toddler. The soft cries of a child inching the mother closer. 

“Please.” She cried. Tears in her eyes, “Please, Mama.” 

Mama. 

That word hadn’t left her lips since she was a child.

The smoke grew once more, flooding the car. Arianna disobeying her mother’s orders one last time. She summoned the last strength in her tired bones and dragged her mother to the ditch as she began to fade away. 

Her eyes squinted as a vehicle came to the crash. The sound of the ignition never-fading. A human man yelled. No. An elf yelled. Came to her. Asked her what happened. His truck was the color of her hair. Old. Beat up. His jaw line hard. Auburn hair. Amber eyes. Face held more than just one scar near his tapered ear. 

He wore tattoos upon his face. The color of rust. Dark rust. 

Or was it blood?

Though his language was a bit colorful in this questions, she couldn't force her mouth open to respond; not when her family still laid in that burning vehicle. He yelled again asking her another question. But her silence did not stop him from helping her with the body of her mother. Tears broke from her eyes as she watched the man go to the car, pulling for her father. 

She rushed to his side. The two of them working together to lay her father next to her mother upon the lush grass. Her body shook. Shock setting in. The elf cursing at her again to get out-of-the-way.

But there was no time to stop now. 

The faint sound of sirens echoed in the distance. He grabbed her hand pulling her from the car as the thing ignited. She screamed, her body tense as he pulled her close, shielding her from the flames. 

She struggled against him, trying to run again to the car, but he held on to her firmly; the tattoo’s upon his face twisting as he began yell over how long it would take her to get herself killed. 

The fire truck arrived first to the scene. The men pulling out the comatose body of her brother. Burns on him. But still breathing. 

All the while she still clung to the stranger.

“Arianna Cousland.” 

The first words the woman had spoken since meeting the man who held her in his arms.

“I mean...I’m Arianna.” She spoke again, her voice cracking a bit as she shook. She looked to her hands, still clinging on to the man’s shirt and remembered herself. Dropping her grip upon him as if he was the one on fire. “I...I apologize. I didn’t mean to-”

“Don’t mention it.” The elf shrugged, his shirt covered with the same blood her dress stained itself with. She shivered again, her torn dress doing little to stem the cold tide of shock. Her entire body felt as if it were buried under a layer of ice, the cold seeping into her form with each glance towards that burning car. 

“Here.” he offered, though his voice was cold, he stripped off the overshirt from his chest handing it to her, “You’re fucking shivering.” 

Her lips opened to protest. To thank the stranger for his assistance, to explain that she could handle herself from here. That she was perfectly fine alone. But something caused her protest to hitch itself in her throat, never voicing itself. She reached out to the shirt, taking it in her dust spotted arms and placing it over her. It was larger than she expected, completely encasing her in warmth and at least a little comfort. 

“Thank you, I -”

“Mam’” an EMT came to her before her lips could part in any more rare sentiment, “We’ve transported your family.” 

“Where?” She asked, her voice breaking, “Where are you taking them?”

“Andrastian South.”

“Come on.” The elf next to her motioned to his truck,”You're going to need a ride.”

They rode in silence. Arianna moving only once to smooth out the broken pigtails of her hair, her lips finally breaking as they came to the hospital.

“Thank you.” She looked to the man before exiting that old beat up truck, “I won't forget this.”

“Virassan Alasan”

“What?” She paused, her brow arching in curiosity.

“My name. It's Virassan”


End file.
